﻿﻿Former West Australian premier Brian Burke has been cleared of disclosing official secrets over land tenements during his time as a lobbyist.

But the former director general of the now defunct department of Industry and Resources Gary Stokes has been found guilty of leaking an official letter to benefit a land developer Mr Burke was working for in March 2006.

Mr Burke has now been acquitted of the final of eight charges brought against him by the Corruption and Crime Commission, which have spanned more than seven years.

With his wife by his side outside court Mr Burke described the lengthy prosecutions against him as "intolerable" and suggested he had been unduly targeted by the corruption watchdog.

Advertisement

"The financial, the emotional and the physical strain of these matters - which have now been going on for years and years - is almost intolerable," Mr Burke said.

"My heart now goes out to Gary Stokes as it does to other people who have been treated so harshly by the CCC process and I think most unfairly."

Mr Burke who been highly critical of the CCC said he believed it had shown a "special vehemence" towards him.

"I'm not going to stop because the process is wrong...there are so many bodies in the wake of the CCC that somebody has to speak out."

Perth Magistrate Robert Young handed down his decisions against the two men this week after a 10-day trial in September.

Mr Burke served as the Premier of WA between 1983 and 1988.

At the time of the allegation he was working as a lobbyist for developer Urban Pacific, which was interested in the Whitby land south-east of Perth in 2006.

Prosecutors alleged Stokes had released an official letter to Mr Burke, arguing the information would have privileged Urban Pacific's residential development intentions for the land.

Urban Pacific had applied to the Department of Planning and Infrastructure for Whitby to be rezoned to allow for immediate residential building.

The department of Industry and Resources then wrote to the DPI in February advising that it preferred deferred urban zoning, consistent with a rival application over the land from mineral sands miner Bemax, the trial heard.

Bemax wanted a three to six year lease over Whitby to explore for titanium.

Stokes was alleged to have obtained a copy of the letter for Mr Burke to prepare a response on behalf of his client.

Both men pleaded not guilty to disclosing official secrets.

They had argued the letter was not confidential because its contents were known to both groups involved in the land dispute.

Magistrate Young's reasons for judgement are expected to be released shortly.

Prosecutor Bruno Fiannaca pushed for a weighty penalty against Stokes to send a message to public servants not to betray public trust.

"Offending like this undermines the integrity of public institutions," Mr Fiannaca told the court.

"[This] is essentially an abuse of the trust that the position carries."

Stokes is due to be sentenced next Thursday and faces a maximum penalty of one year imprisonment or a $12,000 fine.